Ms Em Murphy:

The Senator answered her own question as to why they are still separate. It is because drug use is criminalised. As Mr. Williams mentioned, it is viewed as a moral issue whereby someone who takes drugs is a bad person in some way. There is the idea of individual responsibility. I felt it as well. It took me a long time to understand the social conditions around me that led to me having to reach for drugs every day because I could not cope with the world. The culture that we exist in tells us that that was my fault – that I was a criminal and was morally wrong and bad and that something was wrong with me.

It is the same with mental health in the context of something being fundamentally wrong with me that I want to die or whatever the case might be. As long as this continues to be the way we approach it, the Senator is right in what she said. The situation will be the same as long as the gatekeepers of care are people who still stigmatise people who use drugs and who do not understand the social complexity of why people use drugs. I started using drugs, as I said, before I had any understanding of any of this stuff. Many people who stigmatise drug users will talk about people just choosing to do this. How was I, as a 12-year-old, making that choice and then getting locked into a behavioural pattern of coping? I am still criminalised and held individually responsible for that situation. This will continue as long we do not shift away culturally and systemically. I refer to specialists, GPs, gardaí and all these key services engaging with us and seeing us as criminals. A large part of the reason people with dual diagnosis get turned away from GPs is because they are criminalised. If there is not a shift in this regard, whether in the training of those people or, as I would advocate, just allowing us to self-refer to the services we need without having to get permission from somebody who sees us as criminals.